Architecture of a Castle
The architecture of a castle is more complex than it may appear. Many factors went into building a castle that would provide some degree of livability and functionality, while still having it be strong enough to keep out attackers. A variety of features were needed to make a castle secure. Listed below are just a few of them. Protective features A major part of defending a castle was protective features. These would help to keep the castle safe from attackers. Some mechanisms include: *Naturally occurring landscape features such as cliffs, mountain tops, rivers and lakes helped to make the castle difficult to access. *Moats, which were ditches that were generally filled with water, served to make even the outer curtain wall of a castle difficult to access, and don't allow space for battering rams and other seige weapons. *The curtain wall protected the bailey, or interior courtyard of a castle. *"Bossing" was a technique used on the outer walls of a castle - it made the stone rough rather than smooth, so that energy from strong blows from such weapons as battering rams would disperse, lessening the effect. *Taluses were a type of wall used for castles. The bottom of the wall would be thicker and wider, while the top would be thinner, so the wall would resemble a slope. This has a multitude of benefits: **Seige towers would be rendered ineffective as they could not be any closer to the castle than the base level, therefore they could not be used to climb over the walls of the castle. **With only the bottom level being accessible to attackers, it would be more difficult to break through the thicker wall. **People within the castle could drop rocks from the top of the wall, and, as they shattered on the wider bottom level, they would break into an explosion of shrapnel, hurting attackers near the base of the wall. *Hourdes were wooden structures build at the * top of castle walls. They were used to provide a wider range of attack for defenders and were covered in the wet skin of a freshly killed animal. This was to make them more fire-proof. They could be removed and rebuilt in times of war, though they were ultimately made obsolete when the machicolation was invented. Offensive features Just as defensive features are crucial in defending a castle, offensive features are vital for fighting off attackers. Some features include *Arrow-slits were thin slits in the walls of a castle that were used for archers to shoot at attackers while still remaining protected by the wall. The invention of arrow-slits was traced back to Archimedes. Originally, arrow-slits were used only on small sections of the castle. Only in the 13th century did it become common for arrow-slits to be placed all around the cast le. *Canoniers were a feature similar to arrow-slits. They were used later, and resembled a circle more than a slit, as they were used for more advanced firearms. *Meutrieres were any type of hole used for throwing projectiles from within the castle. These were divided into two main types: **Murder holes, which were holes in a floor that allowed attackers to drop rocks, boiling water, or other projectiles on attackers. **Arrow-slits, which were slits in walls used to shoot arrows at attackers. *Round Paths (these were commonly reffered to by their French name - Chemins de Rondes) were paths on the walls of castles. These allowed for defenders to patrol the area while protected by higher walls called a parapet. It also placed them in an advantageous position to shoot or throw projectiles at attackers. Prisons Within some castles, there were also prisons. These prisons are commonly known as dungeons, but not all types of prisons were actually dungeons, and castle prisons are often portrayed very differently than how they actually were. *Originally, the castle itself was used as a prison. Nobles could be put under house arrest for committing crimes. *A dungeon is defined as a "room or cell in which prisoners are held." They were generally underground *Some dungeons included torture chambers, though they didn't start to appear until the Renaissance period. *An oubliette is an underground dungeon that is accessible only through a hatch in the ceiling. The earliest mention of this type of prison dates back to 1374 in France, though oubliettes weren't mentioned in England until 1819. *The word "dungeon" comes from the French word "donjon," which refers to a keep and, by extension, the prison within a castle. *The word "oubliette" comes from a French word meaning "forgotten place." Ominously, this term is thought to have come about because it was a place that prisoners would hope to forget.